The present invention relates to an improved vibrational food soaking device adapted for a vacuum frying machine. The food soaking device is equipped, with a soaking tank and a food receiving basket which is associated with a pair of hydraulically operated cylinders movable up and down and an oscillation motor making the basket shake from right to left; and an air dispensing frame associated with an air compressor is disposed at the bottom of the soaking tank so as to permit pressurized air to stir up the soaked food as well as the soaking liquid along with the vibrated and shaked basket whereby the soaked food can be thoroughly, evenly soaked at a faster speed.
In general, the conventional food frying process mainly includes the steps of selection, cleaning, trimming, slicing and sorting, bleaching, soaking, vibrational dehydration, vacuum frying, deoiling, sorting, packing. The soaking is usually done in a very large soaking tank in which food to be soaked is plunged. This kind of primitive soaking process has the following disadvantages:
1. The food is piled up in the soaking tank with some of the sliced pieces covered without deeply plunging in the soaking liquid, resulting in the variation of color on the skin of the fried food.
2. The food plunged in the soaking tank without constantly being stirred up is apt to be soaked with different degree and the soaking time is relatively long and the soaking effect is unsatisfactory; and the food in the soaking liquid easily goes sour and becomes fermented.
3. The artificial stirring of the soaking liquid and the food will cause the increase of the production cost in one aspect and also make the soaked food cut into pieces easily broken or damaged.